The Election Commission announced the election schedule for the Upper House of Parliament on Monday.

There are seven seats of Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra whose term expires on April 2.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has two retiring members YP Trivedi and Janardhan Waghmare.

NCP sources said that the two members may be replaced by new faces, which includes Sharad Pawar himself.

Earlier in January, Pawar declared that he will not seek re-election to the Lok Sabha from Maadha constituency and instead would be in the Rajya Sabha as biennial elections are scheduled soon.

The notification for the polls will be issued on January 21. Last date of filing of nomination is January 28. The scrutiny of papers will be done on January 29 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is January 31. The date of poll and counting is scheduled for February 7.

Congress is yet to decide on whether it would re-nominate sitting MPs Hussain Dalwai and Murli Deora.

The other retiring members include BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar and Shiv Sena's Bharatkumar Raut and Rajkumar Dhoot.

RPI's Ramdas Athavale, who is an ally of the Sena-BJP, has claimed that he has been assured a Rajya Sabha seat from the saffron quota. Shiv Sena is yet to take a decision on the issue.